Hope you guys enjoy yourselves! I'm going to be "on vacation" for the week following Friday the 13th. I may or may not be able to get a post out then. It would be while my gf was asleep in the mornings, if it happened.

Okay, I'm officially back and rested from my vacation. It was awesome! Now I can keep working on REKT stuff. Hopefully the new update will be out today, if I can manage it. There's a lot for me to catch up on with various things.

In other news, I did manage to get a small system going to put together different star systems, so, hopefully, by the time you get off of Nanyej's surface, I'll have an actual star system map complete with different planets and such.

Okay, I'm officially back and rested from my vacation. It was awesome! Now I can keep working on REKT stuff. Hopefully the new update will be out today, if I can manage it. There's a lot for me to catch up on with various things.

In other news, I did manage to get a small system going to put together different star systems, so, hopefully, by the time you get off of Nanyej's surface, I'll have an actual star system map complete with different planets and such.

That's an excellent link, Dino! Roleplaying is an incredibly important part of RPGs - I mean, that's why they're called "roleplaying games" and not "stats and skills games". The opening part in particular I really like:

In my experience, what makes role playing games so fun is the role playing! Yes, high pitched battles are a blast, but can get stale when that’s the meat of the experience. Developing and running a character that, over time, really comes to life makes gaming rewarding because eventually you get to know and care about this creation that is, ultimately, an extension of yourself.

Okay, so, rule change at the start of the next mission about General Knowledge, now that I've had plenty of time to think over it:

All players with characters possessing greater than -2 General Knowledge will get to do their GK rolls at any time while aboard the Nemesis/current campaign hub. The number of things they can roll for will depend on their GK skill:

After they decide on each of their attempts, they can submit them to me and say they're rolling for General Knowledge. (The player should arrange their attempts in order from highest to lowest priority of how much they want to learn it.) If any of the things in the list are things I would absolutely never grant, or have no chance of becoming useful, I will inform the player before I do the rolls so they may have a chance to change it.

After the attempts are submitted, I will decide on penalties/bonuses to each ranging from -4 to +4. Then I'll start on the rolls.

The rolls will be normal 1d6+characterskill. After the rolls are done, I'll arrange them from highest to lowest and match them to the attempts. The attempts that, with the added bonus, have 5 or greater, will equal a success and the character will have learned it. The player can roleplay learning it however they wish and I'll assist them in that - going to the library, talking to people, perhaps doing training with someone, etc. The character will have learned these skills permanently - they will not have been forgotten.

If an attempt to learn something is failed, the player can try learning the skill again after two missions have passed.

Finally, if a player forgets to try to use their GK attempts, or chooses not to, the "unused" attempts are not saved between missions.

Here's a short list of ideas for things that I would likely let people learn (in no particular order or priority):

Basic listening/speaking functionality of an alien language, or even sign language or morse code
Basic specs and details about common fighter models in the region
An understanding of the politics of an alien species
Generalized knowledge about how Mimir, Tartarus, or even alien clans operate
Good diplomatic tactics - +1 to charisma when trying to use diplomacy with someone that doesn't like you
Specialized martial arts - +1 to dodge/attack rolls in specific circumstances
Knowledge of how to lockpick and get through keypad-locked doors
The famous "parkour" skill - a bonus when jumping on/over things
In-depth scientific knowledge related to chemistry
Knowledge of special functions regarding REKT weapons and technology
Understanding of how to perform limited workarounds on a CASKET were something to fail
Skill at remote-hacking player ships for beneficial purposes - roll bonus to remote repair of systems
Culinary knowledge and skill sufficient to prepare a variety of alien (and/or human) dishes
Brawling skill - knowledge and practice when in non-weaponized combat
Skill at painting or something similar
Strong knowledge of geology and planetary formation processes
Solid grasp of astrophysics
Knowledge of how to pilot certain classes of ships
Knowledge of how to use warp travel successfully and accurately
Skill at haggling over prices to get the price down x% if at a market

General rules on general knowledge:
- It must be something most characters don't have access to
- It must not be something you could replicate with higher stats/skills, or, if so, only functions in specific circumstances
- If it would never come up in the future (so you could never use it) or it's something that I would never allow, I will inform you and give you a chance to change it.

General guidelines for what I'm more likely to accept:
- General knowledge is a roleplay skill for smart characters. It is not about stats and giving you advantages in combat, although things may do that as a side effect.
- I'm more likely to give bonuses to things that sound like they would make things more fun - not for you, but for everyone.
- I'm more likely to give bonuses to things that better fit the story - both your roleplay, character backstory, and the campaign as a whole.

Things I'm less likely to accept:
- Things that "make things easier" or "make you more badass"
- Things that are harder to roleplay (i.e. they make more sense as a combat skill and less sense as a roleplay skill)
- Things that don't make sense with your character

I like this well, except maybe that -1, 0 or 1 GK doesn't matter for the amount of things you can try to learn...butt I like the rest
Anyway - rolls done with updated stats, I assume (since it is done after the mission)?
Also dammit Tal I had just been making a list of stuff to try and learn with gk today and now you do the same grumble grumble

Edit: also, if you arrange the rolls from high to low, is that taking into account the bonuses?
Say I want to learn A, B, and C. You determine I have +1, -1 and 0 bonus to learn those, respectively.
Say I roll a 6, 4, and 1.
If you arrange them from high to low, I get
A = 6 + 1 = 7
B = 4 - 1 = 3
C = 1 + 0 = 1
and I learn only A.
If you arrange them 'smartly' however I get
A = 4 + 1 = 5
B = 6 - 1 = 5
C = 1 + 0 = 1
And I learn A and B.
(yeah I know, farfetched And you don't really have to answer it if you don't want to, I just want to point out to you that this is a thing you might want to consider )

I think that even a character with a -2 should get at least 1 attempt. Why? Because even the dumbest person can know something, the chance of the roll succeeding is nihil anyway and only partial success is possible iirc but this ties in nicely with the fact that a dumb person probably has incomplete knowledge.

Are things learned with GK still permanent knowledge? because then I'm not sure that I like stuff that gives a permanent increase for another skill like you example with charisma unless there is also the possibility of a drawback (eg. a bad roll for negotiation tactics results in a -1 for charisma with persons that don't like you because you accidentally studied the book "how to make your enemies hate you" instead of the book "how to make your enemies love you" an easy mistake, I know.)
Actually now that I think of it I really like the idea of a negative outcome for GK since that's also a possibility with all the other stat/skill rolls

I think that even a character with a -2 should get at least 1 attempt. Why? Because even the dumbest person can know something, the chance of the roll succeeding is nihil anyway and only partial success is possible iirc but this ties in nicely with the fact that a dumb person probably has incomplete knowledge.

Are things learned with GK still permanent knowledge? because then I'm not sure that I like stuff that gives a permanent increase for another skill like you example with charisma unless there is also the possibility of a drawback (eg. a bad roll for negotiation tactics results in a -1 for charisma with persons that don't like you because you accidentally studied the book "how to make your enemies hate you" instead of the book "how to make your enemies love you" an easy mistake, I know.)
Actually now that I think of it I really like the idea of a negative outcome for GK since that's also a possibility with all the other stat/skill rolls

For the rest, I still stand with what I said in the IRC

While I don't think that you should be able to get an actual -1 to a skill because of a bad GK roll, I agree that it would be cool if there were some kind of consequences for failing a GK roll badly. If nothing, it would at least probably be cool for RP purposes if you actually got fed misinformation after failing a roll badly enough ("Oh yeah, squids can totally mind control you, but wearing a tinfoil hat lessens the effect!")

I think that even a character with a -2 should get at least 1 attempt. Why? Because even the dumbest person can know something, the chance of the roll succeeding is nihil anyway and only partial success is possible iirc but this ties in nicely with the fact that a dumb person probably has incomplete knowledge.

Are things learned with GK still permanent knowledge? because then I'm not sure that I like stuff that gives a permanent increase for another skill like you example with charisma unless there is also the possibility of a drawback (eg. a bad roll for negotiation tactics results in a -1 for charisma with persons that don't like you because you accidentally studied the book "how to make your enemies hate you" instead of the book "how to make your enemies love you" an easy mistake, I know.)
Actually now that I think of it I really like the idea of a negative outcome for GK since that's also a possibility with all the other stat/skill rolls

For the rest, I still stand with what I said in the IRC

While I don't think that you should be able to get an actual -1 to a skill because of a bad GK roll, I agree that it would be cool if there were some kind of consequences for failing a GK roll badly. If nothing, it would at least probably be cool for RP purposes if you actually got fed misinformation after failing a roll badly enough ("Oh yeah, squids can totally mind control you, but wearing a tinfoil hat lessens the effect!")

I'm not sure, I think a -1 would be warranted for a critical fail but maybe with a time limit, it only applies for a certain amount of missions?

Cha0zz, your post seems to imply you misunderstood slightly - it's not a boost to charisma, it's a boost to charisma rolls in some specific circumstances. (Just like parkour was a boost to maneuv, but only when doing parkour)
(if I misunderstood, disregard this )